


Leviathans

by NotTheSmoooze



Category: Original Work
Genre: F/F, Kidnapping, Mutation, Shapeshifting, Vampires
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-20
Updated: 2020-03-20
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:07:39
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,955
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23229121
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NotTheSmoooze/pseuds/NotTheSmoooze
Relationships: Original Female Character/Original Female Character
Kudos: 13





	Leviathans

Before being kidnapped, I'd expected a vampire's castle to be a terrifying thing, infested with cobwebs and overgrown rats, painted red with several centuries worth of bloodstains, and home to all manner of ghouls, beasts, and other creatures of the night. If not, then its dungeon, certainly, would be a place of nightmares. Every lightless cell — for what need had vampires of light? — would be as dark and foreboding as the master of the castle, its hard cobblestone floor wet with slimy moss that crept up the decayed bones of skeletons once belonging to prisoners long dead.

Instead, I'd found... something else.

Waking up in the cell, I hadn't been afraid. Every child in my village knew the stories: walking under the shadow of the vampire's castle was a death sentence. I had known what I was risking, and I'd been prepared for horror. When my eyes finally opened, though, it wasn't horror that greeted me.

For one thing, it _was_ lit, and in that light, I saw a cell none too different to the two prisoner's cells beneath our guard post's barracks. I'd seen those once as a child, and, if anything, the cell I sat in now was nicer. It was certainly larger, and a thick, warm-looking rug lay in its corner. The flat, smooth stone beneath my feet was perfectly clean: in fact, the only real dirt I could see was a thick layer of dust that covered nearly everything.

If this cell was anything to go by, the rest of the castle would be a _palace_.

That wasn't to say I was entirely comfortable. I wasn't chained, and no door held me, but I couldn't move all the same. My arms and legs were completely paralysed. More than that, they were utterly fixed in place — I could move the rest of my body however I liked, but my limbs were rigid, and trying to bend them at all hurt, like my skin was wrapped in a thin coat of inflexible steel.

I held my resolve. If I died, I died. There was no use fretting over it.

I wasn't sure of exactly how much time had passed. Minutes felt like hours in the still quiet of my prison, the steady groan of hunger slowly growing louder in my belly, and all I could do to pass the time was sing to myself. The tune was an old one, and I must've hummed it a hundred times over before I was finally interrupted by the sound of a door swinging open, and the steady _click-clack_ of hard shoes against stone.

_Clack, clack, clack._

The steps were deliberate and carefully paced as they approached, and when their source finally stepped into view, any kind of witty retort I'd been searching for left me.

The woman before me — and she was _definitely_ a woman — was beyond belief. She was a work of art, a statue in motion. Calling her 'gorgeous', or 'beautiful', felt like an insult, and I almost cursed myself for lacking the words to describe her. 

She was a vampire.

_Find the words. Keep your head. She's just as mortal as you are._

I took my own advice. Her hair was a river of—no. Her hair was _red_. Her dress, beautiful, but not quite as supernatural as its wearer, was as grey as a wolf's pelt and reached down to her feet, just short enough to show the toe-tips of ruby red slippers.

Her lips moved to speak, and I watched, enthralled. 

"...A lovely song. Why did you stop?"

I heard her voice, and the spell was broken.

It was a nice voice. It might've even been beautiful, but it was human in a way the rest of her wasn't. I could imagine it belonging to anyone I knew from my home, and the dissonance left me stunned for the second time today.

The vampire's face grew impatient, and I hastily gathered my wits from where I'd left them scattered at her feet.

"I heard you coming. I didn't want to be rude," I apologised, making an effort to keep my voice steady.

The woman fell silent, at that, and her silence was larger than herself. It cast a shadow over the room, and it was a moment before I could speak again.

"So," I managed. "My name is Maria. Do you have one?"

She seemed surprised, at that, as if she'd expected me to be quaking in fear or insensate with despair.

"Have what?"

"A name," I replied. "Like mine. Maria. Maria Alemán, if we're to be formal."

Silence, again, but I wouldn't let it claim me. I still couldn't move, but I was already faced in the vampire's direction, and I pursed my lips and held her gaze until she broke it, looking away.

"...Yes. I do. It has been a while, since I've entertained visitors."

I smiled, just faintly. Entertained was a word for it, but I wasn't about to complain.

"Then I hope I am not poor company. It is a good evening to meet you, my lady," I hesitated, then continued. "At least, I think it's the evening. I'm not quite sure how long I've been unconscious."

The woman tilted her head upwards slightly, as if she could see through the stone above my head.

"It is almost dawn. You have slept for a while, now."

Her voice was quiet, almost inquisitive. I nodded faintly, encouraging her to continue.

"The other humans... don't come near my home. You were close to entering my grounds. Why?"

My smile fell, just a little.

"My story is... complicated. I would need time, to share it properly."

"Then I will give you time. Why did you come to my home, the place your ancestors came to die? Did you hope for a different fate?"

Carefully, I breathed in and out, keeping my calm as best as I could. I knew she could kill me at any moment, but I'd known that when I came here. I had nothing to fear from death. For me, death might be a mercy.

"As I said, my name is Maria Alemán. My father is a priest," I began, and I could see a frown form across the vampire's face. I spoke quickly. "But his eyes started to cloud a little after I was born. He raised me as a scribe, and I took over his duties of caring for the church's library and copying texts from old, rotten tomes to new ones. In them, I read such fantastical stories. About history, and myth, and... vampires."

I met the eyes of the woman above me. _Violet_ , I thought. _Like little gemstones._

"Growing up, I found myself questioning. Catholicism was all I'd ever truly known, but I found... holes. If God created all, I would ask, why is there evil? The priests told me that God did not create evil, that evil comes from man, and I still wondered: if God is almighty, and loves us, why does He not save us from it? Why must we live in a cold world? The books I read revealed God to be a cruel and violent figure, and I could not understand why the priests would ask us to praise Him."

I could feel bitterness spreading across my face. I let it. 

"Eventually, the church grew tired of my questions. Even my father turned against me, and soon, not only had I lost my tasks as a scribe, I had been ordered to stay away from the church entirely. My library was taken from me. My one sanctuary. It... it hurt me, and in my anger, I screamed horrible things. I denounced God, I..."

My words failed me for a moment. Taking another breath, shakier this time, I kept speaking.

"I screamed every horrible thought I had, and the priests heard it all. They called me a monster. A devil. Possessed. My father... my father decided I would be kept at home, but it wasn't a home anymore. All I had to read was their Bible. It was a hell, and I would not stand for it.

"I played along. After months of pretending, of reading their book, I was allowed to manage some basic chores. My bedroom door was locked at night, but in the day, I could clean the house and collect the laundry, and when I had my chance," I began to finish, a wicked smile starting to creep across my face. It felt like an ugly thing, and I wore it happily. "I ran for the one place I knew they wouldn't follow. Couldn't follow."

My story was done, but I kept speaking. I felt like a runaway horse, tripping over my words as I spoke, desperate to finally confess everything to anyone, any _thing_ that might listen.

"I'd read stories. The castle, it goes back centuries, back to when my village was barely a hamlet. The books from back then, there's... legends. Legends about horrible creatures, giants with skin harder than iron and claws that cut through trees. Demons who ate anyone who strayed too close to the castle. Monsters."

I ran out of breath. No, that wasn't quite right. I hadn't been breathing at all. My throat ached, and I gulped down air as fast as I could, my chest heaving against the invisible restrains holding my arms and legs.

The woman in front of me finally spoke.

"Is that why you are here, then? Did you hope for a quick death at the hands of one of my monsters, rather than live out your days in hell?"

I laughed. As out of breath as I was, it sounded ragged, almost mad.

"No. No, I don't want to die. If you killed me, I was ready for it. You're right that I'd take death over another day back there."

"Then what?" 

Confusion played across the vampire's face as I met her eyes again.

"The stories, they say- they say that you make your monsters out of people. I hoped that they were true. Every day I sat in my room, I hated myself for how weak I was. My father was half-blind, and I couldn't even escape him. If the priests were right... if I really am a monster, I must be a pathetic one, and if there's no life for me amongst humans, I hoped that there could be life for me here. _Your_ monster. Vampire _spawn_. If you want to kill me, if the stories lied, then kill me. Please. If not, then... the stories say you haven't made monsters in a while. I'd bet it's been longer since you've had a willing one. I could be your project. An experiment, or a piece of art. Whatever you want from me, whatever you need me to become. I'm yours."

Silence fell for the third time. I didn't have the energy to stop it. I waited, eyes too heavy to lift them from the floor, as the vampire watched me. A year ago, I would've prayed. Now, I just hoped.

A long moment passed, and I watched as the vampire slowly bent to her knees. Even now, she was impossibly beautiful, her dress spilling across the floor around her. She met my eyes, and I saw that she was... blushing? Her skin, normally pale as death, only highlighted the faintest tint of pink spreading across her cheeks. 

She leaned towards me, and I couldn't move to stop her as she planted a gentle kiss on my forehead.

"I have been alone for far too long. My manners have left me. Maria Alemán, my name is Eve. Welcome to my castle. You will stay as long as you like, my dearest monster."


End file.
